Aucassin and Nicolete: A Reader's Note
Andrew Lang's rendering of a medieval song-story that alternates prose with verse, following two young lovers kept apart.
This is a short medieval tale in an unusual form: the story is told partly in prose and partly in verse, an alternation the introduction calls the cante-fable. Andrew Lang's edition carries the tale itself along with framing material, including his own remarks on its rarity and two verse ballades that stand at its threshold.
The introduction sets out why the work is worth attention. It survives from a single manuscript, and its author is described only as an old captive, whom the introduction places, on the authority of M. Gaston Paris, as a contemporary of Louis VII. The form has no close companion among the fabliaux, the prose Arthurian romances, or the heroic Chansons de Geste such as Roland.
How the book is arranged
The seven stored sections run from Lang's introduction through two ballades, then the song-story proper, followed by licensing text, notes, and footnotes. The reading matter you come for is concentrated in a few of these:
- An INTRODUCTION discussing the tale's form, its single surviving manuscript, and its author
- A BALLADE OF AUCASSIN and a BALLADE OF NICOLETE, short verse pieces by Andrew Lang and by Graham R. Tomson
- THE SONG-STORY OF AUCASSIN AND NICOLETE, the tale itself in its prose-and-verse alternation
- NOTES and Footnotes for the reader who wants the scholarly apparatus
The two ballades are lyric introductions rather than part of the plot. They circle the lovers from a distance, mourning distance and lost youth, and they colour the mood before the story opens.
The opening and the reader it suits
The tale opens by naming its subject and promising a healing sweetness in the telling, then sets the scene of a war between two counts. It introduces Count Garin de Biaucaire, old and frail, whose only heir is his son. Here is how the son is first described:
Aucassin was the name of the damoiseau: fair was he, goodly, and great, and featly fashioned of his body, and limbs. His hair was yellow, in little curls, his eyes blue and laughing, his face beautiful...
THE SONG-STORY OF AUCASSIN AND NICOLETE
From there the story concerns how the two young lovers met and the sorrows the lover bore, told in a manner that moves between narrative prose and sung verse. The language in Lang's rendering keeps an archaic flavour, with turns such as So speak they, say they, tell they the Tale marking the shifts between passages.
This suits a reader who enjoys older romance and does not mind, or actively likes, deliberately old-fashioned English. It is brief, so it asks little in the way of time. Those who want the historical context will find the introduction and notes useful; those who only want the tale can turn straight to the song-story and read the ballades afterwards. Readers looking for a modern, plain-spoken novel should know the pleasures here are of a different and quieter kind.
The book, free to read
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